Specialized Resources

Local History Resources

Featured Resource

Universal Class: Novel Writing 101
From character and plot-conflict development to a unique style and specialized writing techniques, writing a novel--while not utterly impossible--requires a dedicated, disciplined approach.

Government, Law & Politics

For most of the twentieth century the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was the principal defender of the rights that citizens can assert against government. This important collection of papers spans the majority of the twentieth century, from 1912 to 1990. Subjects include: the first “Red Scare” following the Russian Revolution of 1917; debates in the 1920s on immigration; the American Birth Control League; lynchings in the 1930s; debates on aliens and immigrants in the years immediately preceding the U.S.

One user at a time, access from Central Library 3rd floor only. Ask the reference librarian on duty for access.

Find legal and law related materials and services, including searches of US and international legal materials, journals, cases, statutes, forms, verdicts, and proposed and enacted legislation and regulations.

As part of the U.S. Census site, American FactFinder offers a rich source of detailed data on population, housing, economics, geographic and industry statistics. It gives users the ability to create and customize maps, modify statistical tables, and save data in a presentation format. Because of the complexity of some of its capabilities, it also provides excellent video tutorials.

The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance, available online and in print, is a compendium of Federal assistance programs, projects and services offering both financial and non-financial assistance to the American public. Its main area of focus are education, health, safety, and welfare.

Wildly entertaining and informative, Dave Leip's Atlas covers presidential, U.S. senatorial, and gubernatorial elections, polls, and predictions. Coverage varies by state for the senatorial and gubernatorial elections, but the presidential elections covers 1789–2016. It also includes an Electoral College calculator, which really shows how complicated this process is.

Supreme Court opinions since 1760 browsable by year and U.S. Reports volume number, searchable by party name, case title, citation, full text and docket number. FindLaw maintains an archive of Supreme Court opinion summaries from September 2000 to the present.

govinfo provides free public access to more than a million official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government. This is GPO's beta website that will eventually replace the Federal Digital System (FDsys) public website.